Scholar and author of ‘When Maasaiphobia Became Policy’, Leiyo Singo, believes Maasaiphobia (prejudice held against the Maasai) in Tanzania has some roots in the country’s educational system: ‘The education system in Tanzania, and Africa in that matter, offers the African child the opportunity to embrace Western form of education but teaches him or her to abandon, despise or even hate that which is called traditional knowledge, customs, and traditions.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
Growing up in a pastoral village in northern Tanzania was challenging. Like many of their generation, neither of my parents ever went to school. Our lives were preoccupied with animal husbandry, and everything was learnt by doing, not reading! The primary school I went to hardly had any books. Apart from our exercise books we only read official letters from the government office to our parents and/or Christian brochures from Father Moot—a white man who then served as catholic priest in the village.
So, my reading only picked up in 2005 when I joined secondary school. There they had a small but rich library...
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